Saturday, May 10, 2014

Aquaman and the Others #2 - June 2014

Before we dig into this issue of Aquaman and the Others, let's say something about the cover: it's awesome. So many of post-New 52 covers are poster pieces, and those have their place, but I really enjoy a good old-fashioned "How are they gonna get out of this?"-typecomic book cover. And Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, and Rod Reis deliver it big time here!

After a one-page trip to the past, we catch up with our heroes, in the exact predicament we saw on the cover:

Sky saves the team by transporting them all into the land of the dead she has access to, which unnerves Ya'wara to no end. As Aquaman takes off momentarily, we learn that, in this dimension, Sky can talk to former Other Kahina, who everyone else thinks is dead. And she's not the only Other hanging around:

Aquaman shows up commanding one of his Atlantean crafts, and the mission (to him) is clear: go rescue Sayeh, Kahina's sister, who was kidnapped by in the previous issue, and is having similar visions to her late sister. We then cut to Sayeh, who is the prisoner of the super-powered siblings Anton and Darya. They have kidnapped her because they want the Atlantean relics, and they think she will help get them. They believe that Aquaman and the Others have stolen what is rightfully theirs.

After crash-landing on an island, the team is confronted by rock creatures, which are dealt with relatively easily (The Operative seems to take on a leadership role, despite Aquaman's presence). But this was just a way for Anton and Darya to bide time until they're ready to make their entrance:

...to be continued!

Another solid, fun issue. As we talk about on the upcoming episode of The Fire and Water Podcast, one of the things I'm most enjoying about this series is (so far), this storyline is self-contained: I don't have to read any other DC books (or even Aquaman, really) to follow along. So far, AATO reminds me of Batman and the Outsiders, one of my favorite comics growing up, and I look forward to getting to know these characters better, and how Aquaman interacts with them.My one slight criticism is on the art: Aquaman is doing a lot of Jim Lee-type posing here, which always seems awkward to me, if not comical. Maybe that's something Lan Medina is doing on purpose, because he's certainly capable of drawing people in naturalistic poses (see Ya'Wara kicking around in the water above). It just seems like if Aquaman is trying to make The Others a cohesive team, he should stop doing Blue Steel all the time when he's talking to them.Aside from that small quibble, Aquaman and the Others is a lot of fun, and anytime I get more Aquaman per month, I'm happy.